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Opinion: Guest Opinions

Daniel Schreiber: The Donald comes to City Council

By Daniel Schreiber

Posted:
04/27/2018 07:49:36 PM MDT

Updated:
04/27/2018 07:49:55 PM MDT

Every day, it seems, we pick up the paper and it's more of the same. Ignoring inconvenient truths, opting to forgo evidence-based policy making for reactionary whims, trying to defy the law of economics, scapegoating others for problems often created yourself. Donald Trump? No, actually our City Council.

Different agendas, same approach.

Municipalize our electric utility? The facts say it will take 10 years or longer, cost 10s of millions of dollars, and the evidence says by the time it happened, if it happened, there would be no material improvement in our carbon footprint. No matter, full speed ahead. Ignore that fake news.

Now it's linkage fees, sure to help make Boulder housing more affordable. 2015 — $9.53 per square foot. Wait, that's not enough, 2017 — $12 per square foot. Hold on, that won't do it ... . How about $58 per square foot? That should do it. We have a study! (The City Council ultimately recently approved a $30-per-square-foot fee — one of the highest in the country.)

Wait a minute, have these fees been effective anywhere in stopping the inexorable rise of property values in municipalities that severely limit developable land and drive up the cost of construction with expensive zoning codes? Well, no, not really. They haven't been successful anywhere. One such bastion of economic engineering, San Francisco, boasts some of the highest home values in the country, and recently topped the inauspicious list of the city with the greatest outflow of residents in the country.

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John Tayer, in a recent guest opinion, rightly noted that linkage fees, which have no discernible impact on housing costs, do have a discernible impact on office and retail rents. With increasing commercial property taxes, retail establishments, especially local and mom-and-pop shops, can't afford to stay, and have many nearby options where they can (and will) go.

Aren't we seeing a decline in sales tax revenue, and won't increasing linkage fees result in increasing rents, driving even more retail away? Well, yes, probably. Won't declining retail sales and tax revenues lead to more budget deficits like we're currently experiencing? Probably. Will the increased linkage fees have a meaningful impact on Boulder housing prices? The evidence says no. Are the proponents of linkage fees on the council and elsewhere troubled by evidence that suggest there is much more to lose than to gain by raising these fees? Apparently not.

Why are we losing our retailers, seeing declining retail revenue and watching the price of housing soar? There are many factors, to be sure. But could a major contributor be decades of ever-more complex and burdensome building codes and their related costs, extremely restrictive land development policies and ever-increasing business property taxes (including linkage fees)? No, no, that's not it. We didn't do this to ourselves. Hmmm ... we need a scapegoat. I've got it — developers! Yes, their endless greed and those darned employed people who fill their office buildings are to blame. So let's keep increasing those taxes, driving more businesses out of business or out of town, and surely those linkage fees will help make Boulder a more affordable place to live, all evidence to the contrary.

Let's ignore the economic facts and inconvenient truths. Let's pretend the evidence that contradicts our agenda and stated goals is of no consequence. Let's forge ahead and make bad ideological policy at the expense of good, fact-based policy, to the eventual detriment of us all. President Trump would be proud.

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